With increasing industrial development, diverse electronic equipments are used to achieve various purposes. An electronic equipment comprises a plurality of electronic components. Generally, different kinds of electronic components are operated by using different voltages.
As known, a power supply is essential for many electronic equipments such as personal computers, industrial computers, servers, communication products or network products. Usually, the user may couple a socket of a power supply to a plug of a power cord (i.e. external power source) so as to receive an AC voltage input or DC voltage input. The power supply will convert the input power into a desired output power for powering the electronic equipment.
For general power transmission systems, power distribution systems and electronic equipments, an instant spark may be generated at the switch contacts due to the electric current flowing therethrough, and the electric arc between the two contacts will melt the switch contacts, which causes damages to the electronic equipment. Moreover, in the power supply, when the input plug of an external power source is contacted with or pulled out from the socket of the power supply, an electric arc may also be resulted and the electronic equipment is accordingly damaged.
Currently, different kinds of electromagnetic arc-suppressing devices, heat-operated arc-suppressing devices or air circuit breakers are used to suppress arc generation. Alternatively, the contacts are covered by current-withstanding alloy and insulating material to prevent damages to the contacts and damages to human bodies. However, these solutions require a certain space and high cost, and are not suitable to be used for the power supply with high power density.
In addition, power supplies are important elements for providing desired power to the electronic equipments of a data-processing system, for example data-processing equipments of a data center. In order to prevent the damages to the system due to the unintentional or accidental interruption of power, a power cord latching or retaining structure is employed to anchor the power cord on the power supply so as to prevent the plug of the power cord from loosening and dropping from the socket of the power supply and prevent the generation of arc flash due to high electric current flowing through the contacts of the connectors. However, it is still an unsafe protection mechanism to prevent the system from shutting down or damages due to arc flash and unintentional or accidental interruption of power.
To overcome the disadvantages of the prior art described above, there is a need to provide an arc flash protection mechanism for power supply and a data-processing system employing the same, so as to avoid damages from the electric arc and unintentional or accidental interruption of power-supplying.